


Big Bad

by sas



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derogatory Language, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, Possessive Behavior, Power Play, Slut Shaming, Sparring, light Violence, sex-negative language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-17 02:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4648122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sas/pseuds/sas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erica has a reputation; so does Cora. The price of maintaining a reputation of the 'Big Bad' is high, and eventually, something has to give.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Big Bad

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Toxin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toxin/gifts).



> My prompt was "You act like a big bad and keep getting into trouble but really you're a big softy (but only with me)"

The sound of the book slamming closed echoes around the room, bouncing off the high walls and waking Cora out of her daze. Her head snaps up to see Erica silently fuming over the now-closed tome. She simply raises her eyebrows in question.

“Nothing. There’s nothing in here about this demon-thing.”

“We have to keep looking, there has to be something.”

Erica rolls her eyes and proceeds to collect her things and stand up from the table.

“Got somewhere better to be?”

“Always.”

Cora scoffs. “What, you got a date?”

“That is exactly none of your business.”

“What’s the cretin’s name? Or don’t you remember?”

“Just because some of us have better things to do than pour over dusty textbooks on a Friday night.”

“Just because some of us have better things to do than sleeping with anything with a pulse.”

“Just because some of us have a life.”

“I have a life.”

“You have a pack; they’re not the same thing.”

Cora feels her blood run hot. She slams her book closed and stands, leaning threateningly into Erica’s space. “You know what? Fuck you, you don’t know the first thing about belonging to a pack, like really belonging, and what it means when that’s taken away from you. Just because you couldn’t give a flying fuck about what it means doesn’t mean you get to preach to people about how they feel about it.”

The silence around them feels massive. Cora closes her eyes, willing the tears behind them to retreat. She lowers herself back into her chair. She hears Erica quietly put down her things, pull out her chair, and gingerly drop down into it. Cora only opens her eyes again when she is sure that they won’t betray her. Even then, she keeps them down, rigidly following the lines of faded text. It’s a while before anyone speaks again.

It’s Erica who breaks the silence. “I don’t, you know.”

Cora tries to lessen the bothered look on her face, and doesn’t really succeed. Not until she sees Erica’s face: meek and shy and sporting a hot pink high up on her cheeks.

“Huh?”

“I don’t.” Erica’s voice was small, her eyes trained on the volume in front of her.

“You don’t? You don’t what?”

“I don’t sleep with everything with a pulse.” Her face has turned puce and wears an expression that makes Cora feel as though she shouldn’t be looking.

“But… You make it seem like…” Cora flounders, not knowing how to word her response.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Why?”

Erica’s face crumples. “I don’t know. When I got better, when I was finally in charge of my own body…”

Cora tries to be respectful, realising that this is the most candidly she has ever heard Erica speak. She nods silently, eyes not quite finding Erica’s.

“And, I mean, I have, you know… I kind of just like the reputation. I like that people think I’m this… I don’t know.”

“Bad-girl type?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I get that.” Cora shrugs. “It’s easier when people keep their distance.”

“Yeah, I think so. And I think there’s this idea that like… I’m dangerous and elusive. After years of being the butt of every joke, I get to be the big bad cat, and not the scared little mouse, shaking and pissing itself in the corner.”

“Makes sense.”

The darkened library falls silent again.

This time, it’s Cora who breaks it. “Why did you tell me that?”

She hears Erica chew her lip, but she doesn’t look up, she just waits for her to be ready.

“Because you’re pack.”

Satisfied, Cora just nods. The silence is more comfortable now, a feeling of familiarity washing over them. They spend the next hour researching, finally giving in when they reach the last text and come up empty again.

* * *

 

Cora is home in the loft alone. She’s just settling into her book when the door slides open sharply. Erica barges in, a ball of flying limbs and swearing.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you want to spar?”

“What?”

“Fight me.” Erica smirks, but it’s cold.

“Erica, what happened?”

“I had a date.”

“Okay.”

“Stand up and fight me.”

Cora thinks about it, and jumps up out of the chair. They circle around each other, bobbing on the balls of their feet.

“You going to tell me what happened?”

Erica leaps forward, jabbing at Cora, who has barely enough time to dodge her fist.

“The jerk,” she puffs, throwing herself forward again.

“The fucking jerk...” another punch;

“tried to kiss me...” left hand;

“and when I said no...” left, right;

“he started saying he knew I was easy and that I should just stop...” she snaps her leg upwards, just missing Cora’s thigh;

“playing...” jab;

“hard...” a stronger punch;

“to...” she throws her whole body behind her fist;

“get.”

Cora catches her hand, and holds on to it. She looks at the her and knows she’s not really angry, but that the encounter had upset her.

“Erica,” she starts softly.

Erica whips her hand away, looking irritated. “Fight back!” She’s half-shouting, half-straining to get the words out. Cora shakes her head.

“Sit down.” It’s not a request, and Erica knows it.

She takes a seat on the end of the couch and watches Cora retreat out of the room. She feels awkward, painfully aware of her body and the fact that she has no idea what to do with her hands. She’s unsure why she came here, why running to Cora was the first thing she thought to do when she was angry and vulnerable. She’s so distracted that she doesn’t even realise Cora’s come back until there’s a steaming cup of tea hovering in front of her. She raises her eyes, takes in Cora’s worried expression, and takes the cup gratefully. Cora sits down on the other side of the couch and waits.

“I normally don’t really, you know, pay attention to that stuff. I don’t know why it got to me so much this time. I just… I lost it. I’m just so tired. Even around the pack, I always feel like I have to be this strong and feisty potty-mouth. It’s so draining.”

“I know. But you came here. That’s a start.”

“I don’t know. It’s different with you.”

Cora fights to hide the smile on her face. She drops her head, letting her hair cover her colouring cheeks.

“I just feel like maybe you get it? Because you’re kind of the same, right? Like, you’re hard and blunt and tough but you’re really kind of a softie.”

Cora scoffs, but it’s really more of a laugh.

“You so are,” Erica smiles. “You can see it, when you talk about Laura, or even Derek. You can see it when you’re reading something you love, your face goes all soft and stuff.”

“That is not true.”

“Is too. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” Erica mimes zipping her lips, and Cora smiles.

“Good. Yours too, you big dork.”

They sit there for a while, just basking in the warmth that comes with being vulnerable and feeling supported. After a while, they shift; Cora orders dinner from Erica’s favourite Thai place and Erica puts on a movie. Somewhere in the middle of the evening, Cora feels Erica’s body lean into hers, and she goes with it, lifting her arm to allow her to lie on her chest. She doesn’t tell Erica, but she’s missed the closeness of pack.

* * *

 

They fall into a pattern. They maintain their reputations. Erica stays the flirty blonde bombshell who would fight a brick wall, and Cora stays stoic and sarcastic. When it gets too hard, when feeding those images gets too much, they steal away and let the other be their strength.

* * *

 

Erica is at home, already in her pajamas, when her bedroom window shoots open, and Cora hurls herself in. She doesn’t say anything, she just paces. Erica looks up from her laptop and watches her. She doesn’t say anything, she just waits for Cora to start. She takes in her posture, her spine rigid and her limbs tense. She watches as her mouth flaps open and closed, urging words up past her tongue, to no avail. Eventually, Cora turns on her heel and looks directly at Erica.

“I’m kind of freaking out.”

“Okay. Why?”

“Something weird happened.” Cora looks nervous, and it makes her look younger than normal.

“Want to tell me about it?”

Her eyes skip past Erica’s and search the wall behind her. It’s another silent minute before she starts.

“We were out patrolling, and Stiles asked where you were and I knew you were having an off day but I didn’t think you’d want me telling him that, so I didn’t say anything but then the guys, they started saying that you were probably on a date and it all started to get kind of judgemental and I don’t really think they meant it but it really got to me and then Stiles called you a man-eater and I…”

“You?...”

“I kind of flipped?” She looks bashful, only meeting Erica’s eye for a split second before searching the wall again.

“Okay, what do you mean you flipped?”

“I kind of… pushed him? And growled. Loud.”

“And this is weird why? You’re my friend. That’s what I would have done for you.”

“I know. It’s just this… It felt… I don’t know.”

“Will you sit down, please?” Erica scoots over on the bed and pats the space beside her. Cora looks around her helplessly before gingerly taking the seat. Her body language screams with discomfort, and it’s making Erica feel edgy.

“Cor. Talk to me.”

“It felt different. I felt protective but like… in a possessive way.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t want him talking about you like that because… You’re mine. And the thought of someone else having you, or being with you like that. I got so jealous. And angry. Because you’re mine.” Cora’s face is flaming red, and her gaze is restricted to the soles of her feet, half tucked under her where she sits.

Erica watches her for a minute before sliding closer and reaching out to gently cradle her chin. When Cora’s eyes meet hers, there is genuine fear there. Erica, despite being so used to seeing the vulnerability in this strong woman, is overwhelmed with a protective instinct, a need to get rid of that fear. So she doesn’t think when she leans forward and presses a small kiss first to her forehead, then to each of her cheeks, and finally and resolutely, to her lips.

Cora pulls back, partially out of shock and partially out of a sense of duty. She doesn’t want this if it’s only happening because Erica feels obliged.

“You don’t have--”

“Are you seriously about to tell me that I don’t have to kiss you?”

Cora looks bashful again. Her nod is slight, so small Erica barely realises she’s moved her head.

“Look at me.” Their eyes meet and Erica smiles. “I have wanted to do that for like, ever.”

“Really?”

“Oh god, yes.”

Without another word, Cora surges forward, covering Erica’s body with her own. The softness of the first kiss is quickly replaced with a force and a hunger. Her strong body pins Erica down into the mattress and her lips crush against hers. Erica’s hands are greedy, roaming freely over Cora’s body and gripping, pulling on her clothes and dragging her further down into the embrace. When Cora’s tongue licks across her lips, Erica can’t stifle the moan. Cora, spurred on by this, detaches her lips from the kiss to trail bruising kisses down the length of Erica’s exposed, arching neck, latching onto her collarbone with her teeth. Erica lifts her legs from beneath Cora and wraps them around her waist, using them to pull her closer. When she feels Cora bite down on the tendon in her neck, Erica decides that this isn’t how she wants to play this.

She uses her legs to flip them over. Taking advantage of Cora’s shock, she grabs her hands and, smirk on her face, slams them down into the mattress. A low moan rumbles out of Cora, who looks equal parts inconvenienced and turned on.

“You are crazy if you think I’m letting you play Big Bad right now.”

“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you.” Erica raises an eyebrow before leaning down and dropping gentle, teasing kisses along Cora’s collarbone, up her neck, behind her ear.

Reaching her earlobe, she growls ‘Mine’ into her ear.

A somewhat-passive Cora jumps to life, snapping her head around and capturing Erica’s lips in another searing kiss. Her hands hastily grab the hem of her shirt and pull it over her shoulders, momentarily breaking the kiss. Now exposed, Erica sits back and Cora takes in the site of her: topless, her hair a mess and her lips puffy and red from their kiss, her chest heaving and her eyes dark, wearing that wolfish smirk she wears when she thinks she’s in control and all Cora can think is ‘fuck’.

When Erica looks down at her, eyes twinkling, Cora suddenly feels nervous. When she sees that Erica has her claws out, it’s all she can do to keep herself breathing. She slides her clawed hand gently up the inside of Cora’s tank top; when she reaches the neckline, she places her index finger against the seam, and smiles as her claw glides down the material, splitting it into two pieces that fall against her sides.

“Jesus Christ, Cor. You’re gorgeous.”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

“Jeez, someone’s bossy.”

Cora growls and pulls her down into another kiss.

* * *

 

They wake up together as the sun filters in the window, a mass of limbs covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Cora, feeling boneless, turns her head easily and sees Erica looking up at her, a content smile on her face.

“Morning.”

“Morning.” Cora smiles and presses a small kiss to her forehead.

“My parents will be getting up soon.”

“Mmmm,” Cora groans and attempts to hide her face. “Five more minutes.”

“Agreed.”

“I’m going to need to borrow a shirt.” Erica pulls her head back, looking at her with a mischievous look.

“Now, why is that?”

“Because some little brat ripped it.”

“Are you sure it’s not because you want everyone to know that you’re mine?”

Cora laughs. “Yeah, maybe that too.”


End file.
